U.S. DOE and National Labs Release New Data on Commercial Building Energy Goals

October 28, 2009

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the DOE national laboratories have released technical support documents that suggest how to achieve 50% energy savings in four key commercial building sectors. This is taking place less than two years after launching the Net-Zero Energy Commercial Building Initiative, which aims to achieve marketable net-zero energy commercial buildings by 2025.

The technical support documents were created by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory under the direction of DOE’s Building Technologies Program. They describe the assumptions, methodologies, and analyses used to reach 50% energy savings over ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004 in general merchandise, grocery store, lodging, and medium office buildings.

The new reports explain how higher levels of energy performance can be achieved in the commercial building industry. These reports are often the basis for Advanced Energy Design Guides—"how to" guides that target architects, engineers, and other design practitioners.

Report data is also shared with members of DOE's Commercial Building Energy Alliances, which are comprised of commercial building owners and operators. Each alliance works with DOE to reduce the energy use and the environmental footprint in the retail, commercial real estate, and hospital sectors, as well as to help disseminate valuable building information within each sector.

To learn more, read the following reports, which are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.